Boeing Dreamliner costs will go down with the use of printed titanium parts
Boeing is working on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner which will be going to be one of the unique and great aircraft in the upcoming but rising costs a deal breaker. In order to cut costs Boeing has hired a 3D printing agency named Norsk Titanium AS from Norway which will be bringing the first structural titanium parts from the Boeing Dreamliner. Boeing has asserted that it will help in saving anywhere between $2 million to $3 million on the overall cost of a single plane.
Aiming at profitability but keeping the quality intact
Boeing has announced that a contract has been given to a Norwegian printing company which will help in boosting the profitability for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Furthermore the idea of Boeing making use of the 3D printed metal parts also shows the growing acceptance in the aircraft manufacturing industry. This move allows the manufacturers to supplement the pieces made out of traditionally expensive materials. Secondly it will also help in lowering the cost of overall manufacturing along with finding more applications in upcoming days.
The team behind the 3D printed Titanium pieces
The 3d printed pieces for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is being manufactured by Norsk who had invested over a year in designing four important part of this plane. This required them to get the Federal Aviation Administration certification as well before it can be put to use. The certification process has already started and the team is hopeful that the agency will approve the materials used by them. If this goes through successfully then Norsk will get a chance to print more than thousands of parts for Boeing Dreamliner which will be used just in a single plane. And they won’t need to get separate FAA approval for different pasts which are a good sign for the Norsk.
In short this will help in not just lowering the cost as airlines has to be make use of traditional materials which requires precise forging and machining but it will also allow the manufacturers to save huge amount of money on future planes.
3D Printed Titanium is the new thing in aircraft manufacturing
If you are wondering why Boeing is opting for Titanium parts rather than the aluminum parts, then here is the breakdown. The first thing to notice about titanium is that it is extremely strong and lightweight in nature and secondly it low cost in nature when compared against the aluminum. Thirdly the aluminum parts present in a $265 million Dreamliner accounts for $17 million. Currently Boeing is only making use of four different titanium parts through 3D printing and it is helping in saving about $2-3 million on the overall costs.
Boeing has come up with some innovative ways of lowering the cost of manufacturing the Boeing Dreamliner as has carbon-fiber fuselage and huge wings which results in usage of more metal. Boeing is also getting stiff competition from the low cost airline manufactured by the rivals which makes use of titanium materials in order to cut cost.
